The Forgotten Puppy

Chapter Three

“What will you call her?” Jess asked with a little sigh. “You’re so lucky, getting a puppy!”

“We’re not sure yet,” Emi told her. “We keep arguing about it – it’s really difficult to choose. But I like one of the names Mum suggested, Rina. It’s pretty just by itself and it means jasmine in Japanese.”

Jess nodded. “That’s lovely! Oh, look, there’s your mum. Email me a picture of her, Emi! Have a good weekend.”

Emi waved as she dashed off to meet her mum at the school gate. First they were going to meet Ben (round the corner from his school, though, as he said it was far too embarrassing to be picked up by his mum and his little sister) and then they were driving over to Kaii’s house to bring their puppy home. There was a special new metal crate in the back of the car for the puppy to travel in, and at home there was a basket and food bowls and lots of toys.

When they had decided they were definitely going to get the little golden puppy, they’d gone shopping and Emi had darted excitedly round the pet shop, choosing everything the puppy could possibly need and more. Mum had persuaded her to put most of it back, though – the puppy didn’t need three leads, after all. Emi knew that really. It was just such fun picking out the different things and imagining the puppy using them and drinking from her new water bowl and playing with all the toys.

Ben had said he thought Emi was so excited she was going to try sleeping in the puppy’s basket, but that was just Ben being silly. She had stroked the furry cushion in it, that was all, and tried to think of a little golden puppy sleeping there, all curled up. The basket was going to be huge for the puppy, to start off with.

“Come on, Mum, let’s go!” Emi raced down the road, pulling her mum after her. “Ben had better be quick getting out of school…”

But Ben was already waiting for them and he looked impatient, too.

Emi sat in the back of the car, staring dreamily out of the window. She wasn’t seeing the streets they drove past at all – she was imagining walks with their puppy and sitting curled up together on the sofa. Or maybe on the floor. Mum wasn’t sure about dogs on furniture, but Emi was hoping she’d give in after a while…

The golden puppy heard the doorbell ring and jumped up. She knew by now what that noise meant. Voices at the door and then quite often people coming to see her and her brothers and sisters, and play with them. She liked that – most of the time. Some of the people scared her – they were too loud and picked her up too suddenly. She padded to the door and sniffed at it, hopefully. The day before, one of her brothers had gone away with the people who’d come to visit. She missed him. It had been strange, curling up in the big basket without him last night. She wondered if perhaps this would be the people bringing him back.

But when Kaii carefully opened the door, the golden puppy saw the girl again – the one she remembered from a little time ago. She had snuggled into that girl’s lap, she was sure. The girl had rubbed her ears and whispered to her. There had been a boy, too, and he’d thrown a jingly ball for her to play with. He wasn’t quite as warm and cuddly as the girl, but she’d liked him, too.

She danced up to Emi and Ben, yapping excitedly and whisking her little curl of a tail.

Emi looked at Kaii hopefully. “Do you think she remembers us?”

Kaii was smiling. “I think so. She hasn’t been that friendly to any of the other visitors. She’s been a bit quiet today, actually. I think she’s missing her brother. He went to a new home yesterday.”

“Ohhh…” Emi crouched down to stroke the puppy. “I hadn’t thought about that. You’re going to miss all your brothers and sisters when you come home with us…”

The puppy leaned into Emi’s hand, closing her eyes blissfully. It was definitely the same girl. She knew just how to fuss over a dog. The puppy leaned in a little more and then her claws skittered and scrabbled on the tiled floor and she flipped over.

The puppy stood up, shaking her ears and looking bewildered. She wasn’t quite sure what had happened. But the girl reached down gently and picked her up, holding her close.

“Oh, look at her,” Mum laughed. “She’s all fluffed up and worried. She’s really cute. I do think she looks like a Jasmine.”

Ben nodded. “Maybe. But I’m not shouting ‘Jasmine’ in the middle of the park. Let’s go with Rina.”

“I can’t believe we’re bringing you home and we got to choose your name,” Emi whispered into Rina’s furry ear. “We’ll look after you so well, I promise.”

Emi was glad they’d gone to get Rina on a Friday night and now they had the whole weekend to get to know her. Kaii had suggested that it would be best to keep her in the kitchen at first, so she wasn’t too scared by the big, strange house. But Emi was pretty sure Rina wasn’t scared of anything.

Ben put her down on the kitchen floor when they first got home, and she went marching round the room on her little stubby legs, inspecting everything carefully. She stood by the glass back door and barked at a very surprised pigeon, and then they saw her tail wag properly for the first time. Because it was curled up so tightly over her back, she didn’t wag it the same way most dogs did. It just wobbled instead.

“Look at her tail!” Emi laughed. “It looks like a caterpillar wriggling!”

“That pigeon got a shock.” Ben peered out into the garden. “I think it might be up in the apple tree panicking now.”

But Rina looked very pleased with herself. She went back to exploring the kitchen, sniffing at her bed and all her new toys, and looking hopefully at her food bowl. She knew what that was.

“Yes, we’d better feed you,” Mum murmured and Rina danced up and down excitedly as she saw Mum opening the bag. After she’d gobbled down the food, she flopped into her new basket. It was too big for her – she looked a bit lost in the middle of it. She sniffed all around it worriedly and then looked up at Emi, Ben and Mum.

“I think she’s wondering where the other puppies are,” Emi said anxiously.

“Maybe,” her mum agreed.

“I’ve got an idea,” Emi said suddenly, rushing out of the kitchen. She shut the door carefully behind her and hurried up the stairs. She was back down a minute later with a huge teddy bear that she’d won in a tombola at the school fair, ages ago. It had dark-gold fur, almost the same colour as Cho, Rina’s mum. Emi laid the teddy bear down in the basket next to Rina and the puppy sniffed at it suspiciously. Then she climbed on to it, rather slowly, as she was very full of food, and slumped down, with her head pillowed on its fat, furry middle.

Emi smiled to herself. The puppy was already fast asleep.